19 TWO Nostalgia and play Paula Harris Introduction This chapter describes a small-scale study that explored older generations’ memories and feelings of nostalgia about their own childhood play experiences and compared these with their ideas about children’s play today. Alongside this, children’s own accounts of playing in the same town in the Welsh Valleys were collected and set against adult memories and beliefs about contemporary conditions for playing. A technique regularly employed by playwork professionals in training and advocating for the child
This accessible reader brings together a selection of highly influential writings by Danny Dorling which look at inequality and social justice, why they matter and what they are. Encompassing an extensive range of print and online media - including newspaper articles and key publications - ‘Fair Play’ provides evidence that Britain is becoming more politically, socially and economically divided whilst coming together in terms of educational outcomes and reduced segregation by ethnicity.
Play is fundamental to children’s health, wellbeing and development. Yet in the modern world, their space and opportunity to play is under threat.
This is the first book to look in detail at children’s play within public policy. Using the UK government’s play strategy for England (2008-10) as a detailed case study, it explores states’ obligations to children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the General Comment of 2013. It presents evidence that strategies for public health, education and even environmental sustainability would be more effective with a better-informed perspective about the nature of play and the importance of allowing children more time and space for it.
The book throws down a challenge to both play advocates and governments, to make effective policy that respects, protects and fulfils children’s right to play as a priority. It is an essential tool for practitioners and campaigners around the world.
167 TEN Children, mobile phones and outdoor play Chris Martin Introduction This chapter examines the relationship between children and mobile phones in their outdoor play, using singular instances from an adventure playground in south west England. It is influenced by new materialist theories (Bennett, 2010a; Coole and Frost, 2010) and posthuman geographies (Whatmore, 2002; Castree and Nash, 2006; Änggård, 2015) that seek to acknowledge the vitality of material things and decentre the human as an organising force apart from ‘nature’. Drawing on these
95 SIX Researching children’s play and contemporary art Megan Dickerson Introduction Thirty years into a significant body of work that defined what is now known as performance art, the artist Alan Kaprow wrote: Suppose that performance artists were to adopt the emphasis of universities and think tanks based on basic research. Performance would be conceived as inquiry…The artist as researcher can begin to consider and act upon substantive questions about consciousness, communication and culture without giving up membership in the profession of art. (Kaprow
113 SEVEN Play and value: determining the values of a nature play setting Linda Kinney Introduction The mission of many zoos and aquaria is to inspire people to make a difference in the conservation of wildlife and wild places and provide opportunities for families to connect with nature. For many families, nature play can begin at accredited zoos and aquaria (AZA), affording AZA institutions the possibility to become leaders in their community for the nature play movement (Ogden, 2015). Zoos and aquaria are beginning to feature outdoor play spaces within
This unique collection of 12 research projects carried out by experienced practitioners in the play sector in the UK and USA puts forward a range of perspectives on children’s play and adults’ relationships with it.
Drawing on a diverse range of research methodologies, the studies consider adults’ memories of play; the co-production of spaces where children can play (in adventure playgrounds, out of school clubs, children’s zoos, children’s museums and public space); therapeutic approaches to playwork; playwork and wellbeing; supporting the play of severely disabled children and young people; play and contemporary art practice; and children’s use of technology in a playground.
Offering a fresh look beyond the dominant singular voice of developmental psychology, this book is essential reading for anyone studying or working with children at play.
Media technologies for play have become major industries in Japan and South Korea. Even in North Korea, citizens bypass the state to enjoy popular culture. At the same time, corporations and governments encourage people to produce economic values through play.
The first comparative study of media technologies in Japan and the two Koreas, this book illuminates the peculiar geopolitical relations between the three countries through their development and use of digital technologies. Drawing from political economy, cultural studies and technology studies, this book will be essential reading for researchers and students of media technologies and popular culture in Northeast Asia.
221 THIRTEEN Play, playwork and wellbeing Nic Matthews, Hilary Smith, Denise Hill and Lindsey Kilgour Introduction Wellbeing and wellness are phrases that have increasingly found favour within public policy and the lexicon of health-related professional communities, particularly in the UK (ONS, 2011; Cabinet Office and DoE, 2013; DoH, 2014). Individuals and groups seeking to advocate action to address health and economic inequalities and social injustices also draw on the terms to bring attention to disparities in opportunities and life chances
33 THREE ‘Advocates for play’ Playwork’s place at the heart of the play movement Behind a high, black, wooden fence that all but entirely obscures it from view, an old Thames riverboat, now converted to serve as a unique indoor play space for local children, is the centrepiece of what appears to be an abandoned plot of waste ground, left over from a slum clearance in the 1950s or 1960s. The fence was erected as a precondition for the award of a capital funding grant from an inner-city investment scheme in the 1980s; for this site – deemed unsightly to all
